How to make art for a brand when the brand is art?

Shooting eyecatching and engaging images for any brand can be challenging but what do you do when the brand that you are shooting for is art?

Below I will share how I approached shooting promotional images for internationally acclaimed equine artist Shannon Lawlor and also share some of the beautiful pictures that we made during the day. Jump over and take a look at Shannon’s incredible paintings and drawings at her website.  

A great start

I have shot with Shannon a couple of times before – once when she was featured on the cover of Routes magazine and then again two years ago. It is always a fun and productive time so when she called me to discuss heading out on a road trip I was immediately excited. She began to collect images and ideas that would serve as inspiration and we passed some ideas between us. It was obvious that she was looking to make photographs that would be visually striking and would represent her brand authentically. 

Location location location

 

Our kind and gracious host for the day was Bruce Campbell, owner of Eagle Hill Equine

I was fortunate enough to be able to shoot a few frames with Bruce during the day too – thank you so much Bruce! It was a fabulous day.

Natural and beautiful

There is something very freeing and exhilarating about leaving all the lighting gear in the truck and shooting with whatever is available. Movement is easier, conversations flow back and forth. Of course the light has to be present in some way that will work for you, and you have to be able to read and interpret the light with fluidity and confidence. On this day the light outside was completely flat which would mean very flattering soft portraits but could also mean flat and dull images. The key is to use the environment to shape the light and to find contrast that will help tell the story.

 

A wider perspective

We made quite a few striking images in the entrance to the barn and in the tack room which in itself could have provided beautiful texture rich photographs all day. However our intention was to capture images that would work across different platforms and times to maintain the brand image. We moved outside into pasture where we were able to shoot with Sadie (the horse). I snapped a couple as tack was being moved which work well to convey energy and narrative due to motion blur on the parts that were moving fastest across the lens.

The cats whiskers

We rounded out the day in a very relaxed style.

Which the cat didn’t really like. Apparently.

It’s a wrap

We finished the shoot both happy with the shots and how we had worked towards our original vision in a way that felt natural and fun. There are many good images from the shoot and in time I hope you will get to see some more. 

Go check out Shannon’s website. 

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Thanks for stopping by.